This civics test should make Arizona's leaders cringe
This week, we bid a not-so-fond farewell to the AIMS test and a hallelujah (public education is saved) hello to Arizona's new high school graduation requirement: the American Civics Test.
You know, the one where you have to score a bare 60 percent on a test that asks such penetrating questions as who was the nation's first president?
I'll forgo asking whether our standards are just, oh I don't know, a tad low. Instead, I'll move on to my own version of civics that every Arizonan ought to know.
The Arizona Civics Test, I call it. Pass it and you, too, will know what the heck is happening to our schools.
Now, learn more about the answers:
1. Over the last seven years, funding for Arizona's public schools, adjusted for inflation, has:
A. Increased 5 percent.
B. Increased 15 percent.
C. Remained the same.
D. Decreased 17.5 percent.
Answer: D. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Arizona public schools have lost 17.5 percent of their funding since fiscal 2008. Only Oklahoma and Alabama have made deeper cuts.
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2. "The current state of education in Arizona is poor. Too many Arizona children are not receiving the education they deserve – the one that will prepare them to contribute to our great state and nation as active citizens and allow them to pursue their dreams and ambitions."
Who said this?
A. Andrew Morrill, president of the Arizona Education Association.
B. Michael Cowan, superintendent of Mesa Public Schools.
C. Diane Douglas, state superintendent of public instruction.
D. Alexis Tameron, chairwoman of the Arizona Democratic Party.
Answer: C. Douglas, a tea party Republican, made her remarks in January after Arizona was ranked 47th in the nation in Education Week's latest Quality Counts report. Douglas has since decried Gov. Doug Ducey's intent "to deprive schools of hundreds of millions of dollars to give to his corporate cronies as tax cuts."
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3. The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that the Legislature violated state law by not properly funding inflation for schools. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper has ordered the state to boost base funding by $331 million this year. In response, our leaders have:
A. Immediately moved to abide by the law and properly fund the schools.
B. Cried poverty and claimed $331 million should really be $74 million.
C. Called for "compromise", despite the fact that the schools won their lawsuit.
Answer: B and C. One wonders if our leaders would be so willing to compromise had they prevailed in court.
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4. Arizona is all about charter schools, those privately run, publicly funded operations that are all the rage. Even the president of the state Board of Education is a charter school owner. Ducey filled his transition team with charter supporters, and he's working on a plan to offer public assistance to charter owners who want to open additional schools.
Among his proposals: to drain a $24 million fund set up to help improving district and charter schools and instead use the money to guarantee debt so that private charter operators can qualify for cheaper construction loans.
Given the state's focus on charter operations, can you guess what percentage of Arizona's public school students attend charter schools?
A. 14.5 percent.
B. 25.5 percent.
C. 33.3 percent.
Answer: A. School districts educate 85.5 percent of Arizona's public school students, according to the state Department of Education. You just wouldn't know it if you hung around the state Capitol.
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5. "Right now we spend far too much on administrative costs," Ducey said in his State of the State speech. True or false?
Answer: Maybe a little of both. School districts spend 10 percent of their operating budgets on administration, just below the national average of 10.8 percent, according to the Arizona auditor general. Meanwhile, charters spend just over 20 percent on administration, double the national average.
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6. Ducey has proposed putting more money into Arizona's classrooms by requiring school districts to cut their non-classroom spending by 5 percent. Meanwhile, charter schools would lose 3.5 percent in additional assistance. Charters got hit with a lower percentage cut because they're already spending more in the classroom. True or false?
Answer: False. School districts spend 53.8 percent of their budget in the classroom while charters spend 49 percent, according to the Department of Education. The national average: 61.2 percent. Then again, the national average includes $3,000 more in per-student funding, according to the state auditor general.
School officials say fixed costs have taken a progressively larger portion of the budget, given cuts. So why are districts taking a larger cut in Ducey's budget than charters? Ducey spokesman Daniel Scarpinato says it's not apples to apples because the schools have different funding formulas.
He promised to call me later to explain how 3.5 percent = 5 percent. Then … he didn't. But he assured me, "Governor Ducey wants to increase classroom spending for all public schools and make sure resources are being directed where they matter."
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7. Speaking of things that matter – or possibly not -- a new poll by the Morrison Institute for Public Policy says 89 percent of Arizonans rank K-12 education as a very high or high priority, while half that said the same of prisons. Meanwhile, eight in 10 adults surveyed said Arizona spends too little on public education -- including 89 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of independents and 71 percent of Republicans.
Given this, which do you think is true:
A. Ducey has proposed suspending $100 million in corporate tax cuts due to take effect in July, saying the priority is to improve public education and as a result, our prospects for landing quality employers who value quality schools.
B. Ducey plans to let those corporate tax cuts take effect and instead, has proposed cutting K-12 operations by $13.5 million. This, as he proposes a $52 million boost for prisons.
Answer: Oh please. Like you don't know.